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2008

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Friction Produced By Esthetic Brackets With Varying Ligation, Christine Knox Abenoja Jan 2008

Friction Produced By Esthetic Brackets With Varying Ligation, Christine Knox Abenoja

All ETDs from UAB

Controlling friction is an important aspect of orthodontics because it allows more predictable tooth movement with less anchorage loss. Friction at the bracket/archwire/ligation interface can reduce the force available for desired tooth movement. Initial stages of orthodontic treatment depend on the ability of the archwire to slide freely through the bracket, making friction an important aspect of all orthodontic brackets in the early phases of orthodontic treatment. The purpose of the present in vitro study was to measure the force to move esthetic brackets over an archwire using different ligation methods. A stainless steel model reproducing the maxillary right dentition …

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Modeling Of Oversaturated Conditions On Arterial Networks, Abhishek Acharya Jan 2008

Modeling Of Oversaturated Conditions On Arterial Networks, Abhishek Acharya

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Oversaturated conditions on arterial networks are a concern for both transportation agencies and the traveling public. The cost of construction, right-of-way constraints, and a variety of environmental, political, and other social issues often prohibit facility expansion and place extra emphasis on optimizing the operations of existing facilities. One of the options available to urban planners and transportation professionals for handling recurring and non-recurring oversaturation conditions in arterial networks is traffic signal optimization. The objective of this study is to develop a better understanding of traffic signal system performance in oversaturated conditions. The case study reported in this research focuses on …

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Biomimetic Self -Assembled Nanomatrix For Bone Tissue Regeneration, Joel M. Anderson Jan 2008

Biomimetic Self -Assembled Nanomatrix For Bone Tissue Regeneration, Joel M. Anderson

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Bone is a dense, connective tissue with an extracellular matrix (ECM) comprised of biological and organic/inorganic biphasic matrices. For this study, novel peptide amphiphile (PA) nanomatrices were synthesized to mimic the native bone ECM and evaluated with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) isolated from bone marrow. The ability of this nanoscale, biomimetic scaffold composed of PAs that are inscribed with cellular adhesive ligands to direct hMSC osteogenic differentiation without supplements, along with other cellular behaviors, was investigated. Typical osteogenic supplements include dexamethasone, β-glycerol phosphate, and ascorbic acid. The synthesized PA sequences were evaluated as two-dimensional nanomatrix coatings without the inorganic …

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The Relationship Between Pornography And Rape Rates: Does The Distribution Of Pornography Increase The Incidence Of Rape?, Jamie Lee Blalock Jan 2008

The Relationship Between Pornography And Rape Rates: Does The Distribution Of Pornography Increase The Incidence Of Rape?, Jamie Lee Blalock

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This study was conducted to test consumption of pornographic material, specifi-cally Playboy, increases the likelihood of rape at the county level. To do this, a cross-sectional design was used to examine this relationship in 3,133 counties in the United States. Overall, the findings suggest that when households headed by females with child-ren, persons 15 and older who are divorced, percent of the population with a high school education or higher, percent of the population who are unemployed, percent of the popu-lation living in urban areas, percent of the population ages 18 to 24, percent of the popu-lation that are black, …

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A Comparative Study Of Extraction Treatment Efficiency Using Conventional Edgewise Brackets And Self-Ligating Brackets, Stan C. Cox Jan 2008

A Comparative Study Of Extraction Treatment Efficiency Using Conventional Edgewise Brackets And Self-Ligating Brackets, Stan C. Cox

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The purpose of the present study was to assess treatment efficiency of one selfligating bracket system (In-Ovation, GAC International, Bohemia, NY) compared to a conventional ligating bracket system (Ovation, GAC International, Bohemia, NY) in extraction cases used in the same practice. Treatment duration, number of appointments, and number of arch wires used per patient were compared within one private orthodontic practice. The total sample size was 155 patients, 83 consecutively finished with conventionally-ligated Ovation brackets and 72 consecutively finished with In-Ovation self-ligating brackets. After applying the exclusion criteria, there were 68 patients in the self-ligated (SL) group and 79 patients …

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Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding In The Repair Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Structures, Stephen Michael Cauthen Jan 2008

Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding In The Repair Of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Structures, Stephen Michael Cauthen

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Composite technology, including the use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP), may be the answer to many growing structural engineering concerns. With the growth and development present in the United States, efficient transportation infrastructures must be maintained as to provide linkage between ports of commerce. With forty percent of all bridges either structurally deficient or obsolete, a low cost, quick repair method is needed which can facilitate these arterials remaining open during a rehabilitation process. Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) can perform under these conditions. It fully exceeds the traditional hand layup method of an FRP application; often times providing …

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Assessment Of Managed Lanes Options, Ozge Cavusoglu Jan 2008

Assessment Of Managed Lanes Options, Ozge Cavusoglu

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The continuous increase in automobile use is directly related to the increase in congestion and decline in air quality in urban settings. In the past 20 years, the total number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States has increased over 70%, whereas highway capacity grew by only 0.3%. Increased construction costs, right-of-way constraints, and environmental and social issues shifted the interest of transportation agencies from building new roadways to strategies that maximize the operational efficiency of existing facilities. Transportation agencies across the nation employed a number of strategies aiming at reducing traffic demand or spreading it over time and …

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Detection Of Total And Pathogenic Salmonella In Oysters Using Real-Time Pcr With Internal Amplification Control And Study Of Their Antibiotic Resistance Profile, Maulshree Gangwar Jan 2008

Detection Of Total And Pathogenic Salmonella In Oysters Using Real-Time Pcr With Internal Amplification Control And Study Of Their Antibiotic Resistance Profile, Maulshree Gangwar

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Salmonella is a causative agent for food and water borne gastroenteritis in humans. A multiplex PCR-based detection revealing total and potentially virulent strains of Salmonellae was developed using oligonucleotide primers. These primers targeted chromosomally located invA gene generating a 274 bp and Salmonella virulence plasmid-borne spvB gene generating 561 bp amplified DNA fragments. The invA gene product brings about the invasion of the cells on the intestinal epithelium and is used as the marker for total Salmonella detection. The occurrence and distribution of these genes in 90 strains exhibited 100% amplification of invA gene whereas only 22% of spvB gene …

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Variability Of Two Sampling Methods In Plaque Samples, Kuei C. Hsu Jan 2008

Variability Of Two Sampling Methods In Plaque Samples, Kuei C. Hsu

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Introduction: Dental caries remain the most common infectious disease in children, and is in fact, on the rise in the U.S. among 2 to 5 year olds. Among hundreds of oral bacteria, mutans streptococci (MS) are considered the major species associated with dental caries. Studies have shown that increased MS in saliva or plaque is an important indicator for caries. The use of standard plate count (SPC) from plaque samples particularly yield variable quantitative results because of complexities of sample collection and processing. Objectives: This study was undertaken to determine collection reproducibility in plaque samples from permanent first molars using …

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Thermal Stability Of Defects In Strontium Titante Substrates For Multiferroic Materials, Shehnaz Jeddy Jan 2008

Thermal Stability Of Defects In Strontium Titante Substrates For Multiferroic Materials, Shehnaz Jeddy

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In this investigation we studied the thermal stability of defects in as-received (100) strontium titanate substrate during isochronal and isothermal anneals in vacuum and oxygen ambients. Using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, our purpose was to correlate the responses of the Fe+3Vo associate defect to either oxygen movement in substrates or to changes in the charge states of the Fe+3Vo defect. Isochronal vacuum anneals at T < 600 0C show increases in the relative EPR intensity of Fe+3Vo, implying increases in oxygen vacancies, but the decreases at T > 600 0C are not as yet clear. Isochronal oxygen anneals were conducted to compare/contrast responses of Fe+3Vo to thermal treatments in different ambients. Vacuum and oxygen anneals produced surprisingly similar results, suggesting that similar effects …

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Parenting Practices As Mediators Of The Association Between Violence Exposure And Internalizing And Externalizing Behavior Problems Among Black Youth, Penny Loosier Jan 2008

Parenting Practices As Mediators Of The Association Between Violence Exposure And Internalizing And Externalizing Behavior Problems Among Black Youth, Penny Loosier

All ETDs from UAB

“Tough love” has been posited as a prevalent parenting style among black families; although most of the literature has focused on differences in parenting across black and white youth, examinations of parenting within an exclusively black sample are rare. The current study used an exclusively black sample to examine a blend of parenting practices aligning with a “tough love” conceptualization of parenting: child disclosure (CD), parental nurturance (PN), and harsh discipline (HD). Given prior evidence that it might be an adaptation to compromised environments, it was hypothesized that, if viable, “tough love” would present via positive associations between violence exposure …

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Optimization Of Thermoplastic Pultrusion Process Using Commingled Fibers, Vishal D. Kamble Jan 2008

Optimization Of Thermoplastic Pultrusion Process Using Commingled Fibers, Vishal D. Kamble

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This work focuses on experimental studies and process modeling pertaining to pultrusion of glass reinforced thermoplastic composites. The experimental work focuses on optimizing the process and investigating process variables which are relevant to the processing of commingled glass polypropylene (PP) fibers. Several parameters affecting the quality of the pultruded parts were identified. A laboratory scale thermoplastic pultrusion machine was set up and glass/PP pultruded composite profiles were fabricated using commingled yarns for different processing variables. The pultrusion process includes tows of commingled fibers, preheater, heating die, chiller and a pulling mechanism. The work describes the process conditions that govern the …

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The Defect Level Of Carbon Vacancy Carbon Antisite Pair In 4h-Sic Using Photo Induced Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, Geoffrey Ngetich Jan 2008

The Defect Level Of Carbon Vacancy Carbon Antisite Pair In 4h-Sic Using Photo Induced Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, Geoffrey Ngetich

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Due to its physical and electrical properties, silicon carbide (SiC) has attracted much attention recently for its possible applications in high power devices. Point defects and the associated defect levels are important to understand if we are to produce high quality SiC wafers. While a lot has been done to understand point defects using electrical measurements, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) reveals more detailed information. EPR gives us both the number of defects and also their specific structure and charge state while photo-EPR helps to determine their defect level. EPR measurements were done at 80 K in the dark and during …

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Engineering Methodology For Considering Permanent Metal Deck Forms For Stability Of Bridges During Construction, Shekhar S. Patil Jan 2008

Engineering Methodology For Considering Permanent Metal Deck Forms For Stability Of Bridges During Construction, Shekhar S. Patil

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Lateral-torsional buckling is a significant consideration in the design of steel bridge girders during construction. Because I-girders have inherently weak torsion resistance, designers provide cross-frames and/or diaphragms at close spacing intervals to minimize the susceptibility of individual girders to instability during construction. A recent increase in fatigue problems around discrete brace connections, along with the costs of fabrication, erection, and inspection associated with cross-frames, has prompted the removal of the minimum spacing requirement from bridge specifications and created great interest in identifying alternative construction bracing approaches. Although permanent metal deck forms (PMDF) are widely used in the construction of steel …

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A Descriptive Overview Of The Jefferson County Mental Health Court, Crystal Rena Null Jan 2008

A Descriptive Overview Of The Jefferson County Mental Health Court, Crystal Rena Null

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Mental health courts have been established to help meet the treatment needs of the mentally ill offender. If mentally ill offenders commit crimes because of their mental illness, then “by treating [them], society may benefit through reduced recidivism and improvements in social outcomes” (Mears, 2004, 258). This study focuses on the Jefferson County Mental Health Court and its participants. It addresses two main research questions: 1) Who participants in the Jefferson County Mental Health Court; and 2) What factors exist to help predict who successfully completes the Jefferson County Mental Health Court? Unlike the majority of other mental health courts, …

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Biomechanical Evaluation Of Proximal Humerus Fracture Fixation And Rotator Cuff Repair, Parthasarathy Raghava Jan 2008

Biomechanical Evaluation Of Proximal Humerus Fracture Fixation And Rotator Cuff Repair, Parthasarathy Raghava

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Locked plating is frequently used to treat proximal humerus fractures. However, varus collapse remains common. Anatomic reduction may decrease the frequency of varus collapse though no studies have evaluated this relation. Hence the first part of this study was to evaluate the role of calcar comminution and calcar fixation upon fixation stability. Eleven matched humeri with three-part fractures were fixed with proximal humeral locking plate. Six pairs had an additional 1-cm medial wedge removed to simulate calcar comminution. Within each matched humerus, one had calcar fixation with long screws while the other did not. The constructs were then loaded to …

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A Rhetoric Of Resolution: The Limits Of Competition, Michael Schandorf Jan 2008

A Rhetoric Of Resolution: The Limits Of Competition, Michael Schandorf

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The idea of competition underlies most all Western cultural practices making conflict inevitable, but understanding the world in terms of constant, perpetual competition limits the development of lasting, adaptive, and constructive solutions to human problems and conflicts. While competition serves the vital functions of quality control and the identification of best practices, the function of “Competition” as a god term betrays a misunderstanding of both the value and process of competition as an instrument, and demonstrates how human conceptualization, mediated by language, can direct the development and acquisition of knowledge into narrow channels and exclude ways of understanding that are …

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The Ghost Of Godwin: Intertextuality And Embedded Correspondence In The Works Of The Shelley Circle, James C. Stewart Jan 2008

The Ghost Of Godwin: Intertextuality And Embedded Correspondence In The Works Of The Shelley Circle, James C. Stewart

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The members of the Shelley Circle attempted to live their lives by and produce works consistent with an arguably unrealistic and utopian political value system. Thematically, the writers show remarkable similarity in attempting to render the ideal real. During the period between 1816 and 1819, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and William Godwin were struggling with living their ideals in a harsh reality. I examine two major works from each author: Godwin’s Political Justice and Caleb Williams, Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound and The Cenci, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Mathilda. In each case (with the exception of Godwin), when moving from …

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Success Rates Of Temporary Anchorage Devices Placed In An Orthodontic Clinic, Alex C. Schreiber Jan 2008

Success Rates Of Temporary Anchorage Devices Placed In An Orthodontic Clinic, Alex C. Schreiber

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In recent years, the use of a variety of temporary placed implants to attain absolute anchorage has been described in the orthodontic literature. The use of temporary implants, fixed to bone, overcomes some of the limitations of traditional anchorage and their reliance on patient compliance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate factors relating to the successful placement of miniscrew temporary anchorage devices in an orthodontic clinic. The orthodontic records of patients who had miniscrews placed during their treatment at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry Postgraduate Orthodontic Clinic were selected. After application of the inclusion …

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Traffic Responsive Signal Systems To Address Rain-Related Congestion, Suman Reddy Surabhi Jan 2008

Traffic Responsive Signal Systems To Address Rain-Related Congestion, Suman Reddy Surabhi

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Rainy conditions typically have an impact on the behavior of drivers and in turn can affect traffic flow characteristics in transportation networks. As a result, signal timing plans developed for dry conditions may be unsuitable or sub-optimal during periods of rain, and changes in such plans may be desirable to account for changes in environmental conditions. Current technology in the field of traffic signal control and communications make it possible to change the signal controller settings remotely, a capability that offers opportunities for signal timing adjustments during rain conditions. This study explores the feasibility and benefits of implementing alternative signal-timing …

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Perioperative Music And Its Effects On Anxiety, Hemodynamics, And Pain In Women Undergoing Mastectomy, Pamela Gail Binns-Turner Jan 2008

Perioperative Music And Its Effects On Anxiety, Hemodynamics, And Pain In Women Undergoing Mastectomy, Pamela Gail Binns-Turner

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The study purpose was to examine the effects of a perioperative music intervention on changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), anxiety, and pain in women with a diagnosis of breast cancer undergoing mastectomy surgery. The convenience sample included 30 women between the ages of 42 and 70 who were undergoing mastectomy in a large urban hospital in the southern United States. Exclusion criteria included male gender, psychiatric disorder, use of psychotropic medications, cognitive mental disability, and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) status 4 or greater. In a quasiexperimental, repeated measures design, participants were randomized equally into music …

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Evaluation Of Pre And Post Treatment Filtration Performance Of Kinetico Macrolite® Ceramic Media Compared To Traditional Sand/Anthracite And Gac Filters In Drinking Water Treatment Process, Jeff Cochran Jan 2008

Evaluation Of Pre And Post Treatment Filtration Performance Of Kinetico Macrolite® Ceramic Media Compared To Traditional Sand/Anthracite And Gac Filters In Drinking Water Treatment Process, Jeff Cochran

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This study was conducted in conjunction with the Birmingham Water Works Board to evaluate Kinetico ceramic filter media against GAC (Granular Activated Carbon) and Sand/Anthracite filters. The Birmingham Water Works Board Water Treatment Pilot Plant was located and operated on the Shades Mountain Filter Plant (SMFP) premises. The evaluation was conducted in three phases: plant matching, plant optimization, and pre-filter testing. The initial phase called for determining the best combination of Kinetico Macrolite Ceramic media to match or outperform the existing Sand/Anthracite dual media filters located at SMFP. At the end of the testing it was determined that 18 inches …

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Human-Centered Semantic Retrieval In Multimedia Databases, Xin Chen Jan 2008

Human-Centered Semantic Retrieval In Multimedia Databases, Xin Chen

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The research described in this dissertation has proposed a human-centered retrieval framework that can automatically retrieve multimedia data based on their semantic content. In particular, the framework queries and searches images and videos in a multimedia database according to their visual content. In order for computers to understand the semantic contents of images and videos, human guidance is necessary. By incorporating the user’s Relevance Feedback (RF) on the retrieval results into the learning and retrieval mechanism, the semantic gap between humans and computers can be gradually bridged. High-dimensional feature vectors of multimedia data can cause a dramatic increase in computation …

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Fatigue And Environmental Behavior Of Long Fiber Thermoplastic (Lft) Composites, Ashutosh Goel Jan 2008

Fatigue And Environmental Behavior Of Long Fiber Thermoplastic (Lft) Composites, Ashutosh Goel

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In the present work we have characterized the mechanical behavior of long fiber thermoplastic (LFT) composites (21% E-glass fiber/polypropylene) under different conditions. We start by comparing the elastic modulus of LFT predicted by a microstructure-based approach called Object Oriented Finite (OOF) element method, and compare the result with prediction from various models commonly used in the literature and the experimental value. The predictions from the models used currently in the literature did not agree well with the experimental value due to the assumptions inherent in the models. The prediction by OOF was the closest to the experimental value because of …

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Analysis Of The Role Of Fcrl5 And Figlers In B Cell Development, Signaling, And Malignancy, Christopher L. Haga Jan 2008

Analysis Of The Role Of Fcrl5 And Figlers In B Cell Development, Signaling, And Malignancy, Christopher L. Haga

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The regulation of signaling and migration is critical to B lymphocyte development, activation, and proliferation. This dissertation reports a functional role for Fc receptor-like molecule 5 (FCRL5), a B cell specific member of the Fc receptor-like family of molecules, and the discovery of a novel family of conserved transmembrane proteins with fibronectin, immunoglobulin, and leucine-rich repeat domains (FIGLER) expressed in bone marrow and B lineage cells. Until now, the signaling potential of FCRL5 was unknown. A panel of FcRIIB/FCRL5 chimeric receptors were created and expressed in a B cell line lacking endogenous FcRIIB. Coligation of the chimeric receptor with the …

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice And No Child Left Behind: A Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Experiences, Linda Marie Hogue Jan 2008

Developmentally Appropriate Practice And No Child Left Behind: A Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Experiences, Linda Marie Hogue

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The authorization of The Elementary and Secondary Act—No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 provided new federal guidelines for accountability in the United States. As a result, schools are required to provide statistical data through standardized test scores to measure adequate yearly progress benchmarks set by each state. The agenda of the federal government was to force school equity for all children. Since the inception of NCLB, teachers have begun the struggle of meeting the demands of federal, state, and local guidelines that impose harsh penalties if benchmarks are not attained by their students. The National Association for the …

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Techniques For Context-Free Grammar Induction And Applications, Faizan Javed Jan 2008

Techniques For Context-Free Grammar Induction And Applications, Faizan Javed

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Grammar Inference is the process of learning a grammar from examples, either positive (i.e., the grammar generates the string) and/or negative (i.e., the grammar does not generate the string). Although grammar inference has been successfully applied to many diverse domains such as speech recognition and robotics, its application to software engineering has been limited. This research investigates the applicability of grammar inference to software engineering and programming language development challenge problems, where grammar inference offers an innovative solution to the problem, while remaining tractable and within the scope of that problem. Specifically, the following challenges are addressed in this research: …

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Performance Characterization And Reconfiguration Of Wireless Sensor Networks, Parag P. Joshi Jan 2008

Performance Characterization And Reconfiguration Of Wireless Sensor Networks, Parag P. Joshi

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Some attributes of a wireless sensor network (WSN) are its large scale of deployment, possible harsh ambient conditions, and limited resource budgets. Therefore, minimizing the demand placed on resource utilization is vital. WSN applications that require binary or quantized information are of interest owing to the resulting savings in bandwidth and power. Two very important applications of binary WSNs are target localization and target detection. Optimizing a multi-modal surface to estimate a target’s location and power is a highly complex problem. Deterministic and stochastic approaches are computationally intensive and sluggish or converge to local minima, causing large estimation errors. This …

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Mechanism Of Interferon-Beta-Mediated Inhibition Of Il-8 Gene Expression, Travis Laver Jan 2008

Mechanism Of Interferon-Beta-Mediated Inhibition Of Il-8 Gene Expression, Travis Laver

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Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a potent chemoattractant of numerous cells, particularly neutrophils, in the innate immune response. In addition to immune functions, IL-8 is known to contribute to the pathogenesis of a number of diseases, including cancer. Interferon-β (IFN-β), a Type I interferon, inhibits the expression of IL-8, but the details of this effect are not known. In this study we investigate transcriptional control of the IL- 8 gene and the mechanism by which IFN-β exerts inhibitory effects on IL-8. Herein we show that stimulation of U87-MG glioma cells with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) results in a rapid recruitment of NF-κB …

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Distinguishing Among Recollection, Familiarity, And Uncertainty: Categorizing The Subjective Basis For Memory Retrieval, Leigh Grace Rougeou Jan 2008

Distinguishing Among Recollection, Familiarity, And Uncertainty: Categorizing The Subjective Basis For Memory Retrieval, Leigh Grace Rougeou

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

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